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Greg McGarity- How long should we accept mediocrity?
andrews1253
Posts: 427 ✭✭✭ Junior
https://www.dawgnation.com/football/dawgnation/uga-athletic-director-greg-mcgarity-responsibility-united
In an article posted nine months ago Seth Emerson posted comments from Greg McGarity.
UGA ranks 24th in the NCAA Director’s Cup all-sports standings, updated on Thursday, and fifth in the SEC. The school is in danger of finishing out of the top 20 nationally for the first time in nearly two decades, and has seen a drop in the number of teams winning championships.
“I feel confident that you will see marketed improvement in numerous sports in the near, if not immediate, future,” McGarity said. “Administratively we continue to be committed to providing the resources necessary to make that happen, and the fiscal year 2018 budget will reflect those commitments.” Greg McGarity
I realize football rules in Georgia, however, I would follow other sports if I felt like we were consistently feilding competitive teams that other schools actually feared. I love excellence! McGarity does not come close to success in that regard. What do you think we should expect from the AD?
Comments
Good post. This is kind of hard to comment because a majority of schools just try and concentrate on one specific sport IMO. For example, Georgia is a football school. I believe they're good in baseball and gymnastics and swimming, but football is the primary sport. Kentucky is primarily a basketball school. Duke is primarily a basketball school. UNC is kind of both basketball and baseball. If AD's were fired based upon the success of the entire sports program at a college, I would think many of them would have been long gone by now. I guess it just depends on what the school and the fans want. Just my two cents.
In no way am I suggesting McGarity be fired. I do believe a school with the prestige, financial backing and fan base should be in the top ten in NCAA Director’s Cup all-sports standings every year! Maybe I'm wishing too much.
you must be a real DAWG. sic em!
I'd like to be higher... but then I ask myself this:
Would I rather be where UGA was in the 1998-1999 season when we finished #2 in the Directors cup (to Stanford who wins it every year)? Or would I prefer being where we are now... but with a football team playing for the national title?
The answer is the latter. I'd prefer both... but if I had to sacrifice one I'll give away the Director's Cup standings for football success.
The problem for me is that the two should go hand in hand. Now McGarity will piggyback off the Kirby hire and stay on as AD. Something needs to be done though because our basketball and baseball programs are a joke
DawgsofWar Bro, really? Football, baseball, gymnastics and swimming..... um what about Equestrian? Even though Gregory didn't mention equestrian, if that doesnt mean "marketed improvement in numerous sports in the near, if not immediate, future" then I throw my hands up.
Sorry I don't keep up with every sport that Georgia has to offer.
Just messing around. All I care about is football when it comes to UGA. Happy we made improvements
Noted jangles.
Not that I am going to these games, but women’s BB is making it this year. Gymnastics will be turning it around, and tennis & swimming rocks. I think golf is good. We just need improvements in men’s BB, baseball, and men’s badminton.
Women's basketball is having an excellent year so far.
The rest of those sports are not near their high points though, other than maybe swimming.
A friend of mine went to NC State. He called me one Saturday years ago after they lost to OSU in heartbreaking fashion up in Columbus. I think they had Rivers and TJ MCClendon. With zero empathy, I responded, "Well....we can't all go to football schools."
GEORGIA IS A FOOTBALL SCHOOL that also happens to be really good at other sports. Sometimes the best at other sports. Swimming. Diving ,Golf, Tennis, Baseball. Women's Gymnastics, WBB. I don't care if they shut down the rest of the athletic program. It is past time we start winning like a **** football school - all the **** time.
If you were AD, we’d be on probation. NCAA requires DI programs to sponsor a minimum # of sports. Don’t think we can drop any.
They really don't go hand in hand.
Stanford wins it every year because they fund EVERY sport that qualifies for the rankings. They get to take their top 20. Back in 1998 (when I was a student)... we only had 20 scholarship sports. I think we're up to 22 or 23 now... but Stanford has 34. They get to toss out their 14 worst results each year.
The Sears Cup is about how many sports you put money into... not your overall success in the sports you do field. That's a secondary factor.
When Charles Knapp was the President of UGA... he didn't really prioritize football financially. He told his AD (Vince Dooley) to focus on bringing all sports up and not to direct every available dollar towards football. That was successful... we got championships in Golf, Tennis and Swimming largely because of that. But fans weren't exactly happy.
Michael Adams read that... and told Dooley (and the future AD's) to focus on football. Dollars started to come out of other sports to increase spending on football.
Football has gotten better. The other sports have slipped.
Ideally we'd spend huge amounts on all sports... but we don't do that.
Some really good comments have been posted and some good information. Tks. I understand each institution places priority on different sports. I will always primarily be a football fan!
My primary concern is that Georgia only occasionally competes at a high level in other sports and considering the resources, talent pool, fan base (which would increase if teams were winning) and financial resources Georgia should be able to compete for championships in numerous sports. This appears to me to be coaching issues. Georgia's got the best kids!
One interesting review I read places Georgia 28th out of 30 in ranking a limited number of programs from other institutions. What really gets my goat... Florida is ranked #1. Conclude what you will from it.
https://www.bestcollegereviews.org/features/most-successful-college-athletics-programs/
But we used to always be a top 5-10 university in this ranking. You say it's because we used to prioritized all sports, and are now focusing on football. Which isn't completely true. The other sports are getting their fair share of the money as well (no different than the past, if any different, they're getting more money), just as they have in the past. I think the main difference is we used to compete in these sports when we had competent coaching and a decent AD. That's really the only change in my mind. And if anything the other sports will get even more money due to football's success than in the past... Either way, there's plenty of football schools that compete and win this Cup every year. So, if other schools can compete in football and all around in sports, I think we can too (not only can we, we have in the past on a regular basis with the main difference being a few coaches and an AD).
I’ve posted this before, but worth another post. Several years ago, Colin Cowherd (before he went to the darkside) claimed that the big basketball programs generated $10mil to $12mil per SEASON. SEC football generates that much in TWO home games.
I would like to see UGA upgrade all around, but I think the true money is in football, especially in the SEC.
But think about coaching in these sports. We've let successful coaches go elsewhere... in part because of money. We had Tubby Smith as our coach in basketball in 1997. While no amount of money was going to keep him from the UK job... we've hired sub-par (and cheaper) basketball coaches. Jim Harrick was making about 450K a year. Smith was making about 650K a year when he left. UGA didn't pony up to hold onto Ron Polk in baseball. Would Yoculan have stayed if we threw more money at her?
The coaches we've maintained (Haack in Golf, Baurle in swimming, Diaz in Tennis) from the Knapp era have all continued having great success... but the replacements we've put in for other sports have largely been former assistants that were cheap and we got what we paid for. Gymnastics (Replacing Yoculan), womens basketball (Landers), mens baskeball (Tubby Smith) all took big steps down because we hired on the cheap. The only real hits were with older guys "coming back" to their sports... Harrick in basketball and Polk in baseball. And we couldn't keep Polk when his price went up... the same would be true with Harrick if he hadn't imploded before the salary came up for negotiation.
Pre-Michael Adams, we spent money on hiring top coaches for other sports. Now we don't.
It's also about hiring the right coach, no matter their price. To do that, you need to be able to properly evaluate. Kirby seems to be the only coach they've hired that they've properly evaluated. There's plenty of first time head coaches in other sports that go on to become successful, they just seem to lack the ability to find them. Also, they are holding onto these coaches that are failing for far too long. Another sign of ineptitude.
After so many years with Foley at UF, I'd think he would despise mediocrity. Guess he wasn't paying that close of attention during his time down in the Swamp, You are what your record says you are.